"I am looking for some advice on iterating in Java. I don’t like the idea of having to call hasNext() and next() and because I need a loop to call these, what’s the point in using the iterators given to us in Lists and Maps? Is it really only if you absolutely have to pull one of these from the list? Or, if you’re taking one item from the list and having to do it for an unmeasured amount of time? I’m not really talking about a For-Each loop but just regular For-loops. This is also only in light of collections and not arrays really. Which is better to use to iterate though – an Iterator or a For-loop?"

The right answer depends on the weight you give to the following criteria:
(and maybe some other criteria)
a) The code must be easy to debug
b) The code must be easy to understand by someone else (or yourself a
year from now).
c) The code must be efficient.

I would general weight these about 60%, 30%, and 10% respectively. If I
were to write code that was to be executed only once, I would not care at
all about criteria b) and c). I will generally opt for some of the powerful
methods available in the Collections. I would use "" if(list.contains(... )""
as apposed to writing a loop (iterator or not) because it requires a lot
less testing. Some of the methods in NavigableMap and NavigableSet almost
make it possible to write the code without writing loop structures. I
general find that the most important question I should be asking is ""What
type of collection will lend itself to a solution with the fewest lines of
code?""